


A Rumor (in Garreg Mach)

by Nabatean_Nan



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: F/M, Post-Blue Lions Route (Fire Emblem: Three Houses), annette/felix (background), flayn/linhardt (background), minor and major spoilers for blue lions route, minor and major spoilers for flayn and seteth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-18
Updated: 2019-09-18
Packaged: 2020-10-21 11:14:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,982
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20692592
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nabatean_Nan/pseuds/Nabatean_Nan
Summary: Manuela tells Byleth some worrying news during one of their girls' nights, and she becomes determined to get to the bottom of it.**Just a silly fic, mostly for fun and an excuse to use some ocs.The title comes from Anastasia's 'A Rumor (In St. Petersburg).'





	A Rumor (in Garreg Mach)

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to ramblings with Bee (Bees_and_Ink) for the first half, joking around with the academy kiddos about Seteth.

Gossip amongst the students is nothing new. Even when Byleth was just a professor, her own students provided themselves with more than enough entertainment in that department. Whether it was related to Sylvain’s latest exploit or Lorenz’s... well, whatever was going on with Lorenz, there was no lack of gossip. So, now that Byleth was acting as archbishop, it was no surprise that she heard even more of the gossip. 

She assumed the students thought she heard none of it; as if she was too busy praying or lecturing all day or something. Like she didn’t have eyes and ears absolutely everywhere. Like she didn’t regularly have tea and coffee and _wine _with all the faculty and staff, laughing and guffawing at students’ antics. She’s done this job for a few years now, she knows how to get (as Annette and Mercedes put it) the hot goss. 

So when Manuela (in her final year of teaching, she swears it, this time it’s the truth, next year she really will retire!) tells her that the students are gossiping about  _ Seteth _ now, Byleth listens closely. 

“They’re terrified of him!” She says with a laugh, nearly sloshing her wine out of her glass. “One of my poor little deer  _ squeaked _ when he walked in our classroom!”

Mercedes, who came back after finding her calling at Garreg Mach, secretly fills Manuela’s glass back up. “Is that so? What’s so scary about him?”

“You mean you weren’t scared of him when we were students?” Annette says. She’s a visiting instructor. Byleth insisted she come over from Fhirdiad to teach magic for a month, but really she just saw an opportunity for her to return and took it. It made Mercedes happy, and it got Felix back for a little while, too. “He used to scare me to death.”

“Why?” Byleth asks. “He’s an old softie.”

“Well, sure,” Annette rolls her eyes. “Once you get down to it. Once you fight a whole  _ war  _ with him,” she and Mercedes both giggle. “But when you’re a student and he’s the right hand to the archbishop, he’s scary! He’s no-nonsense, and doesn’t take any hootenanny or horsing around! He gives stable duty and cleaning duty and detention and ugh....”

She flops on the couch and groans, making Mercedes giggle. Manuela grumbles something about how he can’t take a hint, but Byleth is distracted. Is that really what the students think of Seteth? Surely not. He’s rather strict, yes, but that’s just his professional attitude. This is an academy, a place of learning, and he takes that very seriously. They can’t fault him for that! 

The next morning, she is determined to ask the students personally. She kisses Seteth goodbye, telling him she’s going for an early morning excursion. He mumbles something sweet to her, and she almost wishes she wasn’t going to encourage gossip about him. 

She starts with the house leaders. While Adrestia and the Leicester Alliance are no more, Dimitri encouraged Byleth to keep the Black Eagles and the Golden Deer. Cultural heritage is important, he insisted, and it’s not as though the lands themselves simply ceased to be. 

The head of the Blue Lions this year is Dimitri’s cousin, a girl named Anastasia. She does not carry the Blaiddyd crest, but she carries her head as if she did. She came with high praise from Dimitri, and so far she has lived up to every word. 

Byleth finds Anastasia in the training grounds, with Felix. The picture was all too familiar, and she was almost sad to interrupt. 

“Professor Seteth?” Anastasia asked, panting heavily from her exercising with Felix. “I find his instruction most helpful. Though... Geoffrey, I know, is uneased by him. And Philomene seems to think he’s personally out to get her... I don’t know where they get these ideas, but both of them are rather peculiar.”

“Thank you for your time, Anastasia. Please, remember to drink some water.”

Felix scoffs at her and Anastasia blushes as Byleth makes her way on to her next stop. At the greenhouse, she finds the Black Eagles house leader. 

Perhaps the most controversial of the house leaders, Vesta von Vestra is the younger sister of Hubert von Vestra. She came sponsored by Ferdinand von Aegir, and so far the worst she has done is accidentally burn breakfast. Some faculty and students think her brother gave her secret instructions, but Byleth knows she just wants to enjoy the grass on her bare feet. 

She’s deadheading flowers when Byleth asks her about Seteth. “It’s his eyes, I think,” she says. “I don’t find him to be scary, but I can see why the others do. He has a sharp look to his eyes, don’t you think? Even when he doesn’t really mean to. And sometimes, in the right light, they almost look...”

Byleth waits a moment for her to finish her thought, but she doesn’t. “They almost look...?”

Vesta blinks, then looks up at Byleth. “Oh, I’m sorry. They almost look changed. Like in storybooks.”

Byleth hums before thanking her and heading into the kitchens to find the last of the house leaders. 

Admittedly, she knows the least about Étienne Dupont. He wasn’t recommended by any of her former students. He isn’t related to any of them. He’s from Leicester territory, and he likes to cook. That’s... well, and he’s good with an axe. That’s what Byleth knows. 

“Yeah, it’s just like something is off with him,” Étienne says. “Like no offense. I know you guys are married and stuff. He softens up around you. Without you, he’s like... like a wyvern on a bad day.”

That makes Byleth smile. She thanks him as well, and sets off for the homerooms. She knows what to do, now. 

* * *

Once all the students have had their breakfast and have gathered to their homerooms, Byleth has their professors usher them outside to conglomerate together. Sometimes she holds lectures like this. Hanneman teases her often that she never stopped being a professor, really. He isn’t wrong, of course. She enjoys teaching, she’s found. She also remembers how much Rhea wanted to make connections with the students, and how lonely she felt. Byleth doesn’t want to feel the same way. 

Out of the corner of her eye, she spots Seteth learn against one of the pillars outside of the Black Eagles homeroom. None of the students seem to notice him, which is good. 

“Hello everyone,” she says with a smile. “Professor Manuela mentioned something to me... I’m certain she didn’t mean to concern me with it, but I couldn’t help but be worried.”

A few of the students mumble to themselves, and Manuela looks incredibly confused. She probably still has a bit of a hangover and likely doesn’t remember what it is she even said to Byleth. 

“It’s about Seteth. She mentioned a few of you are... intimidated by him?” Some of the students look away from her, embarrassed. Across the grass, Seteth’s arms cross. “I’ve just come to maybe give you an explanation. I can understand, he is a bit of a... well, he is intimidating. I’ll give you that. But he comes by it naturally. Do you know why?”

She grins, a bit maliciously, on purpose. Her students are, now, all a mixture of confused, excited, and frightened. The professors are dumbfounded. Seteth is terrified. 

Byleth leans forward, ready to unleash her terrible secret. “He’s a manakete.”

There’s a gasp amongst the students, and then silence. Byleth swears she sees Seteth jump five feet in the air before running away, scrambling back to his office. 

Anastasia is the first to speak. “Archbishop, manaketes aren’t real.”

Byleth hums. “Sounds like something a manakete would say to hide their identity.”

“Don’t you remember that dragon that appeared in the Battle at Garreg Mach, Nastya?” Geoffrey Gautier, the lanky younger cousin of Sylvain, mumbles. “Wasn’t it... I mean, I heard that was Lady Rhea...”

Anastasia rolls her eyes. “That’s a baseless  _ rumor _ . It was just a white beast.”

“My dad said one manakete is born every thousand years,” Byleth hears one student say. 

Another says, “The archbishop is just messing with us. You know she loves pranks...”

Byleth chuckles. “The point is,” she calls out. “Seteth is intimidating, yes, but he also cares about you all. Being strict is how he shows it, how he intends to assist you in receiving the best education possible. Please, don’t be frightened of him.”

She nods them all farewell and makes her way to her quarters. She imagines she has a frantic husband to calm down. In fact, by the time she makes it to their room, he’s already packed three suitcases. 

“Are we going somewhere?” She asks, as though she didn’t spill the secret of the century. 

Seteth turns to her, his hair in disarray. The tips of his pointed ears poking out. “Byleth, what were you thinking?”

She walks over to him, reaching out to gently hold his face in her hands. “Whatever do you mean, my love?”

Seteth’s cheeks flare red. “You know very well what I mean! Telling the students that I— that I am—”

Byleth shakes her head and gives him a kiss. “You aren’t a manakete, Seteth, don’t be silly.” She guides him over to one of her desk chairs and gently pushes him to sit. Slowly unbuttoning his the front of his tunic, Byleth sneaks a hand under his clothes. “You’re Nabatean.”

Seteth’s eyes flutter shut as Byleth rubs away the knots in his neck and shoulders. There are many,  _ many  _ of them. He takes in a deep breath, his hands clenching the arms of the chair. “Byleth, the legend of the manakete is  _ based _ on the Nabatean. It’s essentially just the human word for a Nabatean.”

Byleth hums, and slowly works her ministrations up Seteth’s neck and into his scalp. “Perhaps... But you should have stuck around. Most of the students didn’t even seem to think manaketes were real.”

He groans, but not from Byleth’s words. Byleth’s hands have moved on to his ears, where she gently massages his lobes. “Still... I have been in the monastery for so long now...”

“None of the students know that,” Byleth whispers as she massages his pointed tips. 

He bites his lip. “The faculty.”

“Can keep a secret.” She places a kiss to his left ear, then makes her way back down to his shoulder. “Don’t you think the safest place for a saint is a church, Seteth? Cichol?”

He lets out a shaky breath. Rhea had asked him a similar question often. He spent sixteen years in the monastery with her. If not for the war, it would have likely been much longer. He and Flayn had never spent so long in one place, especially not with Flayn masquerading as a sixteen-year-old girl...

“Not forever,” she says softly. “Someday, I want to leave. Move to the coast, or the woods, with you. Maybe find wherever Flayn and Lin have gone off too. Think they’d let us join?”

Seteth chuckles. Flayn writes them often. He misses her dearly, like a part of him is missing, but he knows she’s safe. Even if it is with that Hevring boy.

“Maybe,” He mumbles. Byleth has gone back to rubbing gentle circles into his shoulders. “... but yes. We cannot stay here forever.”

“We could build a little cabin by a river,” Byleth mumbles. “Have a few kids...”

That brings Seteth back to reality, his eyes blasting open. “A-A few?”

“Yes... eight or ten,” Byleth says with a teasing grin. 

“Goodness,” Seteth mumbles. “Spread out over a few decades, I hope.”

She chuckles lightly. “Yes, I suppose that’s reasonable. But for now, our place is here. I bet you can work the students thinking you’re a manakete to your advantage.”

Despite his instinct to run far away from the danger of humans knowing his identity, Seteth grins mischievously. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to ramblings with another Bee (BeneathTheOperaHouse) for the second half, Seteth getting a well-deserved massage ;)


End file.
